We applied to be parents!

We did it. We applied to be parents. That statement seems super weird, like we applied for a fishing license, but we did it. Sunday was our initial info meeting/orientation, and we got finger prints done and handed in paper work. Now we wait a couple of weeks for all of that to get processed. If all goes well, we may get to start our ten weeks of classes in April.

Guys, I am a total commitment-phobe. Seriously, the whole drive home from picking up my dog, when he was just a cute little helpless furball puppy, I cried. All I could think about was how I had just made a 10-15 year commitment, and I was so overwhelmed by that. Every commitment to move (East Asia, back from EA, North Carolina, Iowa) has been accompanied by a total freak out, as was buying my car and my house. I spent a solid six months totally convinced I wanted to marry Jason and just waiting for him to figure it out, only to hit mild panic a couple of days after he proposed. Fortunately, by then, I knew my pattern!

So, you can imagine my thoughts Sunday afternoon shortly after turning in our paperwork. But, I've learned to trust myself. I think through decisions extensively and perhaps obsessively, so once a decision is made, I can trust it and know that I will return to confident and excited after the panic subsides.

I was also reminded that Sunday was just an initial insight into the system we are jumping into: a little loud and chaotic, not enough workers, nobody has time to be delicate with your feelings, and nothing gets done in a hurry or on a dependable time line. As much as I want to start painting our kids room and soliciting donations of hand-me-downs from friends, it's not time. Right now, it's just time to practice waiting.

And to organize the garage. Seriously, this seems to be the linchpin in the whole organizing/purging/make room process for the entire house.

Not Much Time In The Kitchen

I'm really bad at keeping blogs going. Like, really really bad. So we'll see how this goes. But, we're starting the foster care/adoption adventure and it seems almost a requirement to blog about that.

Wait, what? We?

Yep, my kitchen is now our kitchen. And the Ph.D. is done. And I've moved to the middle of the Midwest to a little college town. It's great and life is rolling along. And we'd hate for it to get boring, so just shy of a year into marriage, we are starting the growing-our-family adventure.

This weekend we'll go to an information/orientation meeting, get fingerprinted, and submit paperwork. Then we'll wait to see if we get to enroll in the required parenting classes.

It's exciting. It's terrifying. Honestly, it seems super normal like this was always the plan and super-distant since we aren't able to do much more right now than talk about how to re-arrange my office and fill out paperwork.

On that note, I'm off to make Sticky Honey Sriracha Chicken, though using chicken breast instead of drumsticks and some sort of something with yummy little yellow potatoes.  The tough decision is whether to chop them up and roast them with a little olive oil and spices or to boil and smash them...